AG: Springfield School Board violated open meetings law

Friday

Mar 28, 2014 at 1:26 PMMar 28, 2014 at 11:31 PM

By Dan PetrellaStaff Writer

The Springfield School Board violated the Illinois Open Meetings Act last year when it discussed a proposal for “adaptive reuse” of the old Enos Elementary School building behind closed doors, the Illinois attorney general’s office has ruled.

Jerry Jacobson, from a group calling itself the Ad Hoc Committee to Save Enos School, asked the attorney general’s office to review the situation after the school board met in executive session June 3 to talk about a proposal to renovate the building, which was scheduled for demolition. The board cited a provision of the open-meetings law that allows discussion of “the purchase or lease of real property” in closed session.

In its response to the attorney general’s office, the school district’s lawyers argued that the meeting wasn’t a violation because no “discussion” took place.

“There was no substantive discussion of the Requester’s group’s concept/proposal — simply an iteration that the group continued in their efforts,” the district’s lawyers wrote. “Two Board members noted the previous Board had already decided the question, and President (Chuck) Flamini stated he wasn’t interested in ‘undoing’ their work.”

However, in an opinion issued this week, the attorney general’s office said that argument didn’t hold water.

“Contrary to the Board’s assertion, these exchanges constituted a discussion of public business,” says the opinion signed by Assistant Attorney General Dushyanth Reddivari. “The fact that the Board members were in agreement regarding the demolition does not demonstrate, as the Board has suggested, that there was no discussion and therefore no meeting on this issue subject to the requirements of OMA.”

The attorney general’s office directed the district to release to Jacobson the audio recording and written minutes of the closed-door discussion regarding Enos School, 524 W. Elliott Ave.

In a written statement issued late Friday afternoon, the district’s law firm, Brown, Hay & Stephens, called the decision “illogical on its face.”

The district’s lawyers said the attorney general’s office acknowledged that the board could discuss the possible sale or lease property in closed session and that the proposal to reuse the old school “would require the District to sell or exchange real property” but still determined the discussion about the demolition “fell outside the exception.”

However, because the office didn’t not issue a binding opinion, the district said it has no way to challenge the ruling.

“It is always the intention of the Board of Education to remain in compliance with the Open Meetings Act,” the statement says.

In the ruling, the attorney general’s office wrote, “The verbatim recording ... reflects that the Board’s discussion focused solely on whether to reconsider a proposed plan for the adaptive reuse of Enos School, and that the subject of the purchase or lease of real property, much less the purchase or lease of a specific parcel of real property, was never broached.”

Jacobson wrote in an emailed statement that the ruling “has vindicated the position of the ad hoc committee.”

“The wanton destruction cannot be undone, but the Attorney General has put this Board on notice that public business must be discussed in public, not in secret meetings,” wrote Jacobson, founder of the historic preservation group Save Old Springfield.

Serving with Jacobson on the ad hoc committee were Mike Jackson, then chief architect for Illinois Historic Preservation Agency; Steve Myers, a real estate agent and past president of Downtown Springfield Inc.; and Dan Mulcahy, a local developer.

Mulcahy had previously proposed renovating the old Enos School building into loft apartments, but the school board rejected that plan in 2011.

The Classical Revival-style school was rebuilt in 1926 following a fire the previous fall. The building was originally constructed in 1896, and an addition was built in 1915.

The district went forward with the demolition last summer despite the preservation group Landmarks Illinois including the building on its 2012 list of the state’s “10 Most Endangered Historic Places” and a determination from the state Historic Preservation Agency that it qualified for the National Register of Historic Places.

Students began attending the newly constructed Enos Elementary School in August. District officials have said the $9 million project was necessary to bring school’s facilities up to 21st-century standards.

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